TIM Writes

If you’ve seen my head pop up on social media or read my bio on the front page, you probably already know this about me: I used to be a pastor.

I like to tell people I still care about good and evil, and that makes being a fantasy author feel like the most right thing in the world. It took a long time to get here.

I’ve always been a daydreamer. And like every young daydreamer who grew up on Star Wars and Lord of the Rings (I was the 10-year-old kid who yelled “Cooool!!” in the theater when Strider cut off the lead uruk’s head), I started writing my own fiction.

My best friend at the time took one look at my first page and said it was rubbish. He was probably (definitely) right. But I was the sensitive kid, and never put pen to paper on my story again.

Instead, I became a pastor.

Okay, it wasn’t that linear a journey, and the tale is a long one.

The short version: I got caught up in the moment. But once I care about something, I’m all in. I was the guy in “Bible college” people came to with questions about the Bible. Seriously.

The journey away from all that was a long one too. 

I’ll try to share more about that sometime, maybe on a guest blog. But some stories that need to be told satisfy few, and others should only be relived so many times. 

Let’s fast forward.

The transition back into a world outside of ministry was tough and rather jarring, but I pulled through. I went to university, first for history, then for public policy, and finally for marketing, around the time I was diagnosed with ADHD.

That diagnosis set me on the path to writing.

I read up on accessibility, and marketing exposed me to business writing. Along with modern journalism and website UX, business writing teaches the most accessible style there is. And I loved it. It made sense to me.

Simple, elegant, persuasive, punchy.

And then something really interesting happened. I noticed the same style in thrillers and some horror I was reading at the time. It caught me off guard. But I realized the editing and writing I’d been studying for years could actually work for fiction.

The dream. The thing I’d always wanted to write, but hadn’t dared since that sad attempt at age 10.

So I made another transition, this time from business to professional writing (yeah, I know, MORE school). The program was an even split between business and creative writing, which meant I got to continue my business studies WHILE stepping my foot into the world of fantasy writing.

And now I had a story to tell.

Once I started, I couldn’t stop. All those years of daydreaming, struggle, trauma, heartache, joy, and meaning — every wayward step along the way, every victory, every beautiful experience — it all rushed out in a deluge I couldn’t control (and didn’t want to).

For the first time, it was like the journey made sense. And what you’re about to read in my books is the result.

I hope you’ll enjoy this first step into that story. I have only one driving principle as I write: create an evocative and meaningful experience for you, my reader.

I mean, there’s also all that other good stuff: monsters, dragons, magic, swordplay, hints of romance, and of course, the eternal struggle against evil, the collective and individual struggle for our right to thrive.

But beneath all that, I wanted to pull you into the dream of fantasy, to feel the magic for yourself and wake up believing it was real.

Cheers, and enjoy!